Paramount Animation

Paramount Animation is an American animation studio that is the animation division and label of Paramount Pictures.[4] The division was founded on July 6, 2011. Its first film, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was released on February 6, 2015,[5] and its most recent release, Wonder Park, was released on March 15, 2019. Their next release, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run will be released in 2021.

Paramount Animation
Division
Animation label
IndustryAnimation
Motion pictures
PredecessorFamous Studios/Paramount Cartoon Studios
Terrytoons
Fleischer Studios
Bray Productions
FoundedJuly 6, 2011 (July 6, 2011)
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
,
United States
Key people
ProductsAnimated films
Animated television shows
Number of employees
112[3]
ParentParamount Pictures

Background

In July 2011, in the wake of critical and box office success of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies' animated feature, Rango, and Paramount's departure of DreamWorks Animation upon completion of their distribution contract with Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Rise of the Guardians in 2012, Paramount announced the formation of a new division, devoted to the creation of animated productions.[4]

History

Brad Grey era (2011–2017)
Early logo.

In October 2011, Paramount named a former president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, David Stainton, president of Paramount Animation.[6] In February 2012, Stainton resigned for personal reasons, with Paramount Film Group's president, Adam Goodman, stepping in to directly oversee the studio.[7] It was also announced that The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, a standalone sequel to 2004's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and based upon the popular Nickelodeon TV show, SpongeBob SquarePants, is the studio's first film and would be released in 2014.[5]

In August 2012, Variety reported that Paramount Animation was in the process of starting development of several animated films with budgets of around US$100 million.[8]

On July 31, 2013, Paramount Animation announced that they were developing a new live-action/animated franchise in the vein of the Transformers series, which was titled Monster Trucks. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger were set to write the film's script, Chris Wedge (director of 2002's Ice Age) was set to direct the film, and Mary Parent was set to produce the film, with an initial release date set for May 29, 2015.[9]

The studio's first film, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water on February 6, 2015 to positive reviews[10] and was a box office success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming the fifth highest grossing animated film of 2015.[11] That same month, Paramount fired Adam Goodman due to the studio's thin film slate and Goodman greenlighting box office bombs at the studio.[12] Paramount announced another SpongeBob film later that year.[13]

In the summer of 2015, Paramount Pictures participated in a bidding war against Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures Animation for the rights to produce The Emoji Movie, based on a script by Tony Leondis and Eric Siegel. Sony won the bidding war in July and released the film in 2017.[14] The studio's head Bob Bacon also left Paramount Animation that summer.[12]

In June 2015, it was revealed that Spain's Ilion Animation Studios (the studio behind 2009's Planet 51) won a bidding war against other animation studios to produce a 3D animated tentpole film for Paramount Animation, which was already in production since 2014.[15] In November 2015, Paramount Animation officially announced the project as Amusement Park, (later renamed Wonder Park) with former Pixar animator Dylan Brown helming. The studio also announced Monster Trucks, The Little Prince, Sherlock Gnomes, and the third SpongeBob film.[16]

On May 2016, Paramount Pictures announced that they had signed a deal with UK-based Locksmith Animation to co-develop and co-produce three original animated projects to be released under the Paramount Animation label (with animation produced by DNEG).[17]

The studio's second film, Monster Trucks was released to mixed reviews[18] and became a box office failure, grossing $64.5 million on a $125 million budget and losing the studio $120 million.[12][19][20]

On March 2017, Skydance Media formed a multi-year partnership with Ilion Animation Studios and in July, announced its first two animated feature films — Luck and Split — which would be distributed by Paramount Pictures as part of their deal with Skydance. On October 10, 2017, Bill Damaschke was hired to head the division as president of animation and family entertainment.[21]

Jim Gianopulos era (2017–present)

In April 2017, Paramount ended its deal with Locksmith Animation when Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey was replaced by Jim Gianopulos, who decided that their projects did not fit in with Paramount's other upcoming releases. Locksmith formed a multi-year production deal with 20th Century Fox four months later.[22][23]

In July 2017, Paramount Pictures named former DreamWorks Animation co-president Mireille Soria as the president of the studio.[1]

The studio released its third film, Sherlock Gnomes on March 23, 2018 and became a critical[24] and financial disappointment, grossing $90.3 million on a $59 million budget.[25]

In April 2018, Paramount Pictures named former Blue Sky Studios and Nickelodeon Movies producer Ramsey Naito as the executive vice president of the studio.[2]

The studio's next film, Wonder Park was released on March 15, 2019. It received mixed reviews[26] and it became a box office flop, grossing only $119.6 million worldwide on a budget of less than $100 million.[27]

Initially, Paramount Animation never had an on-screen logo for their first four features. They just used the standard Paramount Pictures logo.

In September 2019, Paramount Animation introduced a new animated logo featuring a character nicknamed Star Skipper.[28] When Mireille Soria came to Paramount Animation, one of the first goals set by Jim Gianopulos was to make a logo for the division. The crew wanted to put a female character in the logo because the studio’s team is mostly female, and according to Soria, it captures “the magic” of the division. The logo and the character of Star Skipper was designed by Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie lead visual development artist and art director Christopher Zibach and animated by ATK PLN and Reel FX Creative Studios.[28] This logo will debut in front of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run in 2021.

Process

Similar to Warner Animation Group and Sony Pictures Animation, the studio outsources animation production to other animation studios.[29] Rumble and Luck were created outside of Paramount Animation, although they will be released under the studio's label.[30][31]

Paramount Animation will not have an in-house animation style. According to Mireille Soria, each film will have their own unique style created by the filmmakers, which would be helped by outsourcing animation to different vendors.[32]

Filmography

Feature films

All films are distributed by Paramount Pictures.

# Title Release date Co-production with Animation service(s) Directors
1The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water[S]February 6, 2015Nickelodeon Movies
United Plankton Pictures		Rough Draft Studios
Iloura		Paul Tibbitt
Mike Mitchell (live-action sequence)
2Monster Trucks[S]January 13, 2017Disruption Entertainment
Nickelodeon Movies		Mr. X
Moving Picture Company		Chris Wedge
3Sherlock GnomesMarch 23, 2018Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Rocket Pictures		Mikros Image
(London and Paris)
Reel FX Creative Studios		John Stevenson
4Wonder ParkMarch 15, 2019Nickelodeon Movies
Midnight Radio Productions (Uncredited)		Ilion Animation Studios
Dylan Brown (uncredited)[33]

Upcoming films
# Title Release date Ref(s) Co-production with Animation service(s) Directors
5The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run[S]2021[34][35][30][31][36]Nickelodeon Movies
United Plankton Pictures		 Mikros Image (Montreal) Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) Tim Hill
6Rumble[R]January 29, 2021[36][37][30][31][38][39]Walden Media
WWE Studios
Reel FX Animation Studios		Reel FX Creative StudiosHamish Grieve
7LuckMarch 19, 2021[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]Skydance AnimationIlion Animation StudiosPeggy Holmes
8The Tiger's ApprenticeFebruary 11, 2022[48][38]L'Atelier AnimationCarlos Baena

Television series
Title Release date Network Co-production with
Adventures in Wonder Park[49][50]TBANickelodeonIlion Animation Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios

Reception

Critical and public reception
Film Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic CinemaScore
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water 81% 62/100 B
Monster Trucks 32% 41/100 A
Sherlock Gnomes 27% 36/100 B+
Wonder Park 34% 45/100 B+

Box office performance
Film Budget North America International gross Worldwide gross
(unadjusted)		 Ref(s)
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water$74 million$162.9 million$162.1 million$325.1 million[51]
Monster Trucks$125 million$33.3 million$31.1 million$64.4 million[52]
Sherlock Gnomes$59 million$43.2 million$47.1 million$90.3 million[53]
Wonder Park$100 million$45.2 million$74.3 million$119.5 million[54]

Accolades

Annie Awards
YearFilmCategoryRecipient(s)Result
2015 The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water Animated Effects in an Animated Production Brice Mallier, Paul Buckley, Brent Droog, Alex Whyte and Jonothan Freisler Nominated
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Tom Kenny

See also
  • List of Paramount Pictures theatrical animated features

References
  1. Busch, Anita (April 12, 2018). "The Boss Baby's Ramsey Naito, Others Join Paramount Animation Executive Ranks". Deadline. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  2. McNary, Dave (April 12, 2018). "'Boss Baby' Producer Ramsey Naito Hired for Paramount Animation Post". Variety. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  3. Desowitz, Bill (18 March 2020). "How Hollywood Animation Studios Are Coping with Coronavirus". IndieWire. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  4. Finke, Nikki (July 6, 2011). "Paramount Expects DreamWorks Toon Exit; Studio Starts Paramount Animation Unit; Jeff Katzenberg Zeroing In Time Warner". Deadline. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  5. Szalai, Georg; Miller, Daniel (February 28, 2012). "Paramount to Release 'SpongeBob' Movie in Late 2014". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  6. L. Weinstein, Joshua (October 10, 2011). "Paramount Names David Stainton Animation President". The Wrap. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
  7. Fleming, Mike (February 22, 2012). "Paramount President Of Animation David Stainton Resigns". Deadline. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  8. Graser, Marc; Kroll, Justin (17 August 2012). "Paramount ramping up animation slate". Variety. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  9. Finke, Nikki (31 July 2013). "Paramount Animation Plans 'Monster Trucks' Live Action-Toon Franchise: In Final Talks With Blue Sky's Chris Wedge To Direct". deadline.com. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
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  11. "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
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  15. Hopewell, John (June 15, 2015). "Annecy: Paramount Animation, Spain's Ilion Ally on 3D Tentpole (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
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